Alerts, warnings, and status messages

The Nofence app and collar use alerts, warnings, and status messages to keep you informed about your equipment and your herd. We recommend familiarising yourself with these before you start using the system.

Animal alerts

Reduced activity detected

The reduced activity alert gives you an early warning when an animal appears to have less activity than the rest of the herd. This could signal illness, injury, or distress -- things that are easy to miss in a large pasture. By highlighting changes in behaviour as they happen, this alert helps you take action sooner rather than later.

No movement detected

The collar continuously monitors motion. This alert triggers when a collar has been completely still for an unusually long time. Possible causes include:

• The collar has fallen off and is lying on the ground.

• The animal is resting or sleeping. Animals can be inactive for long periods, especially at night, but will typically shift position within a few hours.

• A potential problem with the animal. Prolonged immobility could indicate illness, injury, entrapment, or death.

The threshold for this alert is four hours. This balance is chosen to catch potential issues quickly while reducing false alarms from normal resting behaviour.

High pulse volume

This alert notifies you when an animal receives an unusually high number of pulses in a 24-hour period. It will appear orange or red in the app depending on the severity. Possible causes include:

• The animal needs more training.

• The collar is too loose.

• The pasture design is difficult for the animal to navigate.

• GPS signals are being disrupted.

This alert is a sign that something isn't working as it should -- whether with the collar, the pasture setup, or the animal's training -- and is worth investigating.

Safety mechanism triggered

This alert appears when the virtual fence for a collar has been disabled because the animal received many pulses in a short time without responding. Possible causes include:

• The animal is stuck on the border of the fence.

• GPS drifting.

• The animal cannot feel the pulses.

• A faulty collar.

What to do:

1. Check on the animal as soon as possible.

2. Check the pasture design.

3. Check the fitting of the collar.

4. Once you are confident the issue is resolved, re-enable the fence.

If you believe the collar is faulty, contact support.

Escape mode active

Escape mode starts when an animal leaves the virtual fence and does not turn back, and the collar has reached its limit for audio warnings and pulses. This usually means the animal has a reason to leave -- for example, it may feel threatened or be in danger.

When escape mode is active:

• The collar stops giving pulses.

• It uses sound to guide the animal back.

• The animal's location is visible on the map, making it easier to find and return it safely to the herd.

Escape mode turns off automatically once the animal is back inside the pasture. We recommend checking what may have caused the escape, and reviewing your boundary if needed to help prevent it from happening again.

Collar alerts

Fault detected

This alert appears when we find a problem with your collar that cannot be fixed remotely. What happens next:

• A replacement collar will be sent to you automatically.

• In the meantime, keep an extra eye on the animal until the new collar arrives.

Collar due for replacement

This alert appears when a collar has been reported faulty and is beyond repair. A replacement has been registered, but the new collar has not yet been shipped. What it means for you:

• The faulty collar should not be used with animals.

• A new collar is on its way.

Collar replaced

This alert appears once the replacement collar has been shipped. Expect the new collar to arrive soon.

Connection and status alerts

Poor connection

This warning appears when a collar loses its network connection, most commonly due to poor mobile coverage or because the distance between animals is too great for HerdNet to maintain a connection.

Even without a connection, the collar will stay assigned to its current pasture and continue to operate normally, giving audio warnings and pulses at the fence boundary. As soon as the collar reconnects, it will sync its data with the app and update its status and location on the map.

No pasture assigned

This warning appears when a collar is reporting but has not been assigned to a pasture. All reporting collars generate usage fees. To avoid unnecessary charges, we recommend removing the battery from any collar that is not in use.

Unable to load pasture

This warning appears when a collar cannot update its assigned pasture, most likely due to poor network coverage or because the collar is too far from the rest of the herd. If you are confident that network coverage is good and the battery level is sufficient, we recommend running a troubleshoot.